


The opportunities handed to us by a game of dodge ball

by Wizardfeet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: And Keith is the brooding loner, Dodge-ball fucking sucks, LET ME TELL YOU, Lance is that awkward skinny kid, Like what else did you expect from him?, M/M, Not really., They are thirteen, but it all works out in the end, is this a crack fic?, kid AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 09:36:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7355647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wizardfeet/pseuds/Wizardfeet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It all seemed to go downhill when the teacher told each pair to separate to different sides of the court. Betrayal lurched in Lances stomach. Who did that? Who told people that they could pair up with a friend only to rip them apart and pit them against each other in the brutal scrabble for eighth grade power that was Physical Education Dodge ball?!</p><p>PE Teachers apparently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The opportunities handed to us by a game of dodge ball

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, Dodge-ball freaking sucks. But tis all good my friends  
> Fluff will ensue

In hindsight, Lance supposed, it was not a good idea. Introducing himself to the new kid, that is. I mean yes, it seemed like a good and rational thing for a thirteen year old to do and it did turn out okay in the end. He was just introducing himself after all. But it would have saved him a bleeding nose and a black eye if he had just left him alone. 

It wasn’t like he’d had any choice in the matter though. Lance just saw Keith standing at the front of his homeroom and his brain had immediately decided that, hey, this kid seems friendly, why don't you go make introduce yourself to him? 

Keith did not seem friendly. At the front of the room, his scowl was the most noticeable thing about him, that and his mullet. His tie was undone and his blazer askew, despite it only being his first day at the Garrison. The rest of Lance’s home room peered suspiciously at the new kid, anxiously crossing and uncrossing their legs under Keith’s scrutinizing gaze. 

Yet when Coran, their homeroom teacher, seated Keith next to Lance the first thing the brunette did was smile broadly and hold his hand out in greeting.

“Hi! I’m Lance.” Leaning around the table, Lance’s good friend Hunk, raised a dubious eyebrow. Keith remained silent, taking a few good seconds before his eyes raised to meet Lances. His gaze flickered down to Lance’s outstretched hand, his expression unreadable. 

It was when Keith scoffed and turned to the front of the room that Lance decided, okay. Maybe this guy wasn’t as friendly as he thought before. At least he didn’t seem like a trouble maker though.

This wasn’t the case. In first period English Keith had already managed to disrupt the lesson several times, causing the class to be held back for several minutes at lunch time. Lance didn't think that was fair, it wasn’t anyone else’s fault that Keith had to point out every single detail that the teacher got wrong about the message of ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.’ The kid knew a lot about sci-fi and space and things, Lance could give him that. After the classes (Keith’s) punishment, Lance decided to once more, approach the stoic boy who only seemed to be able to find his voice when back talking teachers. 

Despite how long Lance kept the ‘conversation’ going for, it’s very difficult to create chemistry when only one individual is talking. Eventually Lance dropped the topic (‘So, how do you feel about cats?’) and at long last decided that Keith was never going to talk to him. However, this revelation didn’t stop Lance from interacting with him at every possible chance he could take. 

In PE lessons when the teacher wasn’t feeling like doing much and decided that partner work was what they would do today, the first thing Lance did was latch onto Keith’s side, eager to try and get some sort of reaction out of him. Unfortunately, he never succeeded, until halfway through the term when the teacher decided to hold a dodge ball game. Lance hated dodge ball and, he decided, he hated PE teachers. 

They were instructed to choose a partner, so naturally Lance gravitated himself towards an already frowning Keith, who simply sighed when Lance grabbed onto his arm. 

It all seemed to go downhill when the teacher told each pair to separate to different sides of the court. Betrayal lurched in Lances stomach. Who did that? Who told people that they could pair up with a friend only to rip them apart and pit them against each other in the brutal scrabble for eighth grade power that was Physical Education Dodge ball?!

PE Teachers apparently. 

Despite his unfortunate situation, seeing Keith look at least a little bit uncomfortable on the other side of the court made Lance feel a little better about himself. At least he wasn’t the only one who had felt that the sorting system was entirely unfair. 

Five minutes into the game however and Lance was not feeling good about himself at all. It was a miracle that he had survived this long without being hit yet, most of the throws being pegged his way hitting the people Lance cowardly ducked behind. Keith on the other hand was enjoying himself, or at least Lance thought so. He wasn’t really showing any emotion with his face, just throwing balls at other innocent children with chilling precision but at least he wasn’t frowning either. It finally came down to the last two people on Lance’s side. 

They were loosing. Miserably. Well actually that wasn’t true. Keith was the only person left on his side but it was Keith and the other person on Lance’s team had only got to where they were by using the same tactics as Lance had. Sacrifice someone else. 

At least there was someone on his team, at least then he could hold out a little hope and – oh no. They just got pegged in the stomach by Keith.

Lance watched in silent terror as his last remaining teammate was dragged shamefully off the court and Keith beginning to gather his ammunition, poised and ready to win the game. 

Sweat dropped down Lance’s forehead as he turned to meet his fate. There was no point in going on, Keith had almost singlehandedly taken down half of his team and Lance had only survived through to the end out of sheer cowardice. This was it. 

But as the terrifying red ball left Keith’s meticulously aimed throw and barrelled straight towards Lance’s chest something miraculous happened. He dodged it. 

The ball hit the back of the hall with an echoing thwack, bouncing along the ground as the group of onlookers stared, slack faced at Lance. 

He had actually dodged a dodge ball. And thrown by Keith no less! It was a miracle! The look on Keith’s face was priceless as Lance turned back around. His jaw was slack and for once he actually looked surprised at something. Determination swelled inside Lance’s veins. If the only way to get Keith to show emotion was being considerably good at dodge ball, then so be it. Keith straightened himself up and picked another ball off the ground and narrowed his eyes, raising his arm and pointing the ball straight at Lance in a menacing demeanour. Maybe Lance hadn’t thought this all through properly. 

He went skidding across the dodge ball court as another throw came spiralling from Keith, narrowly missing him by just the hair on his prepubescent arms. Damn Keith could throw. Lance felt a little jealous actually, not that he’d ever admit it. The guy was talented in English and PE. (Even if the teachers refused to acknowledge it.) Just as the ball hit the back wall another came flying towards him. Lance ducked and just in the knick of time to, as the ball sliced through the air where his head had been just seconds ago. The crowd ‘oo’ed and ‘ah’ed. Or at least Lance hoped they did, it was a pretty impressive feat after all.

Glancing back to Keith, Lance expected to see a look of rage and frustration on his opponents face. However, he was greeted with a smile, not a happy or joyful smile but a smile nonetheless. Keith looked determined, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth and his brows drawn into a concentrated frown. Lance would say he looked down right scary. Except he didn’t. For whatever reason, Lance couldn't be bothered to think of why, he became entranced by Keith’s not quite a smile. The twitch of his opponents usually down turned lips had completely shocked him. Out of all the things to get Keith to smile and it had been not quite hitting Lance in the face with a dodge ball? In fact, Lance had become so engrossed with thinking about Keith’s weirdly nice face, that he barely heard the cries from his team mates to ‘Dodge! Move, you absolute fool, move!’ until it was too late.

A sharp smack hit him sharply in the face and it felt like the force of a thousand winds was working against him as he was thrown backwards and then dumped onto the ground. Blood trickled slowly down his nose and dripped wetly onto the floor. Keith rushed forward fretfully and knelt beside Lance’s face, reaching awkwardly out with his hands, unsure of what he was supposed to do.

Lance found the whole thing quite amusing really, the Keith being awkward, not the getting hit in the face by a dodge ball. A supportive hand helped Lance to sit up as the teacher only just began to notice that all of their students were gathered in one corner of the gym and not playing dodge ball on the court. They strolled over, apparently not really caring about the blood rushing from Lance’s nose or his eye that had begun to turn a nasty shade of purple. Lance didn't mind though. He was too busy enjoying the feeling of Keith’s hand rubbing on his back and the look of pure trepidation on his face as he anxiously held Lance’s chin up trying to stop the blood spilling everywhere. Keith had never looked so emotional. 

The teacher sent them both to the nurse’s office but not before a prolonged and tedious lecture on safety in the gym and how ‘we do not use dodge balls in such a violent manner Keith’ which made no sense whatsoever because what else were they supposed to do with them? Roll them along the floor like they were bowling balls and hope to trip someone over? Keith looked like he was about to say something along those lines and Lance would have let him too if he didn’t want to stop the aching on his left temple so badly. 

And so the two departed from the gym and were now seated on one of the beds in the nurse’s office, Lance swinging his legs back and forth whilst simultaneously licking a lollipop and holding an icepack to the left side of his head. Fortunately for him his nose had decided to stop bleeding half way through the walk. Keith coughed awkwardly. Lance stopped mid-lick of his lollipop, raising a tentative eyebrow as Keith brought his legs up to his chest shyly. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Huh?” Lance blurted out unintelligibly. It wasn’t that he hadn't understood what Keith had said, more so he didn't understand why he was saying it. 

“You know for the whole.” Keith raised his hand and gestured sheepishly around his head. 

“Oh…” Lance sucked in through his teeth, “Yeah… It’s all good.” Keith blinked slowly, obviously surprised by his answer. Lance wondered what kind of life Keith lived if he thought that forgiving someone was surprising. Then again, Keith had been ignoring Lance (and everyone else at the school) for practically an entire term, so it wasn’t really that surprising. 

“Really?” Said Keith, straightening himself up a bit. 

“Yeah, really.” Said Lance. For a second, Keith became entranced by the floor and Lance began to worry he’d said something wrong when the other boy finally spoke up.

“I should get going. You know, back to class.” Straightening out his legs, Keith leapt off the bed and landed gracefully on the floor. Lance wondered how he managed to make everything look so precise and intelligent. 

Keith strode towards the door, his face already set back into his usual frown, when he stopped in front of Lance. Cautiously he raised his head and met Lance’s eyes in a contemplative stare. Before Lance’s brain had any time to register what was happening, Keith tilted his head forward and placed a delicate kiss on Lance’s cheek. Lance looked shyly to the side, his cheeks blossoming into a rosy hue as Keith turned and walked out the door, not saying a thing. 

The spot on Lance’s cheek where Keith had kissed him tingled with silent joy. Lance bit his lip, looking down at his shoes as his ears began to turn pink in embarrassment. 

Dodge ball, Lance decided, was not so bad after all.


End file.
